Weeknight Dinner Success Starts With Lemon, Olive Oil and Salt.

[elleng]

I have 24 kinds of chiles and over 50 dried herbs and seasonings in my spice drawer. There are dozens of oils and vinegars stuffed into my pantry, fresh herbs in pots on the deck, and a collection of condiments that I suspect is multiplying like bunnies behind the refrigerator door.

Yet the items I reach for day after day, meal after meal, number exactly three: salt, olive oil and lemon. They are my kitchen workhorses, the ingredients I always have on hand that I can use to create pretty much anything I feel like eating, in dishes savory or sweet. Even when I add herbs, spices or condiments to the pan, these three are where I start.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/dining/ingredients-for-weeknight-dinner-success.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMedia&module=pocket-region&region=pocket-region&WT.nav=pocket-region&_r=0

[cbayer]

1. I absolutely agree with her about the olive oil.

Buy the very best you can afford and use it for drizzling or for dipping your bread.

I've never played with different salts, but that is definitely worth exploring.

And I would go for fresh herbs before lemons.

Then there is cheese. If I could have only one food in my house, it would be a perfect parmigiano.